Nocturne
by november soul
Summary: If given a chance at redemption, you better believe Eric Northman will fight tooth and nail against it. Question is, does he even have a choice? Eric/OC. Bill/Sookie.
1. In the Dark

Insert disclaimer here.

This will be my first attempt at a True Blood fanfic, so bear with me through the rough spots. Of all the characters on the show, Eric is the most fascinating to me - maybe because we haven't learned _too_ much about him at this point, but whatever the case, he is my muse.

This takes place soon after Season 1. It's only a prologue, so it's on the short side, but please let me know how you like it…

Nocturne

Any sane person would be screaming for help if they were in her shoes, but fear and reason stopped her from doing so. She didn't want to give herself away in the darkness, not when she had just gained a lead on her pursuer. Her breathing ragged, she ducked down between two metal trash cans, sliding herself up against the brick wall of the alleyway and hugging her knees close to her chest. The alley smelled of piss, rotten food and diesel, but she registered none of this. Every muscle in her body was on fire from being on the move for the last few hours. Her nerves were making her hands shake with a mixture of adrenaline and fear. It was nearly impossible for her to regain control of her body at this point, but she knew she had to, because the alternative was infinitely worse.

_Calm down, calm down,_ she told herself. _He'll hear you!_

How long had she been running? Too long. Since nightfall, but that was hours ago. It was well into the morning now.

She needed to get somewhere public, somewhere with people, witnesses. There was no way she could know if that would stop him, but she had to try. She couldn't just give up. Not now, not after all she had learned. She needed to find someone she could trust with the information she knew, before she ended up missing, dead, or some combination of the two.

She closed her eyes, and listened very carefully to any and all sounds around her. She could hear the street traffic just beyond the alley – she was _so_ close to it – the drip drop of a broken pipe somewhere above her head and…footsteps. They were nearly silent, but she heard them on the damp pavement of the alley. Her heart skipped a beat in her chest and she fought the sinking feeling in her stomach.

_Breathe_, she commanded herself. _Keep breathing and keep quiet._

Pressing a hand over her mouth to help muffle the sound of her inhaling and exhaling, she remained as still as possible as she heard the footfalls travel closer to where she lay trembling in hiding. She could hear her own heartbeat in her ears, the usually slow and steady _thump thump _had sped up to an impossibly fast staccato rhythm ever since she had left her apartment earlier that night. She just prayed her pursuer didn't hear her heartbeat as well as she did at the moment. When the footsteps had passed, she still held her breath for fear of him catching that minute sound.

She opened her eyes and quietly, slowly, and reached into her jacket to pull out a sharpened wooden post. She had to brace herself for what she was going to do next, because she would either succeed and escape into the streets (hopefully not getting hit by a car in the process) or die trying.

The second of the two options chilled her to the core, but she pushed her fear aside as much as she could and forced herself to focus.

_It's now or never_, she thought.

She sprang out of her hiding place like a cat doused with cold water, and immediately heard her pursuer behind her as she made a mad, desperate dash towards the dimly illuminated street. She was just a few feet away when she felt an iron grip clamp down on her shoulder and jerk her backwards further into the alley. She tried to instinctively twist out of the grasp, but she immediately felt something snap in her shoulder – and the resulting white hot pain threatened to overwhelm her completely.

As a scream tore away from her throat, she thrust the wooden stake in her hand backwards, bending at the elbow so quickly she thought she'd splinter it in addition to dislocating her shoulder.

The grip released almost at once as a deeper, hoarser scream resounded from behind her. When she turned around, she saw her pursuer crumble to his knees as his hands clawed away at his chest. Blood was streaming from his mouth, nose and eyes in uneven, quick spurts. She felt her gag reflex react at the back of her throat, her stomach threatening to empty its contents onto the ground, however little there was. (She couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten.)

Frozen in place, she watched in fascinated horror as his body decayed before her eyes in a matter of seconds, and then, of a sudden, collapse to the ground in a grotesque plashet of blood on the pavement. The metallic stench of decay overpowered all of her senses.

"Oh God," she breathed, staring down at the sight.

Her mind was completely blank for a few seconds, until she was able to tear her gaze away from all the blood on the pavement, a sight that reminded her of black tar. She looked down at herself and shuttered: her sneakers, jacket and pants were drenched through in blood. She barely even registered the pain in her shoulder as shock began to quickly set in. She vaguely thought that she should leave the scene as quickly as possible, find somewhere to clean up and then head south towards the only person she trusted with what she knew and had just survived.

She had thought to do all of this, but before she could even take a step, she was knocked unconscious by a blow she never saw coming from behind her.

Her body fell to the pavement, next to the pool of the vampire's blood.


	2. Tabula Rasa

Disclaimer will be back in fifteen minutes.

Thanks go out to all the reviewers! I just heard that the second season of True Blood will start airing on June 14, and I can't wait! Just a quick heads up: I haven't read any of the books (though I want to), so I'm basing this entirely on the series. If I make any huge mistakes with regards to the world and how the vampires work, please do let me know. As far as plot goes, this is all the product of an overwrought imagination! Enjoy & don't forget to review…

Nocturne

Bill remained anxiously in the shadows, watching silently as the nurse removed the breathing tube from the unconscious girl on the hospital bed. Her vital signs had been rising all day, and it was only an hour ago that the attending doctor had determined she was strong enough to breathe on her own; she had been in a comatose state for the last three days. He remembered Sookie flinched when the doctor push a needle into the girl's arm to monitor her response to the pain.

Penelope Hale, Penny for short. That was her name. He had only met her once before, when she had stayed at Sookie's house for a few days after Miss Stackhouse's funeral. She and Sookie were cousins, their mothers were sisters. From what Sookie had told him, Penny led a fairly uneventful life. She had left Bon Temps some time after high school to pursue an education in the arts at university in North Carolina.

She looked somewhat similar to Sookie, in that they had the same flawless, pale skin. But that was where the similarities ended. Bill remembered from their first meeting that she was very petite, maybe no more than an inch taller over five feet. She had short dark hair that fell just past her shoulders in loose waves, pale pink lips and, Bill noted, a crescent-shaped scar just above her left eyebrow. He'd have to ask Sookie about that later.

For the last seventy-two hours, all he and Sookie had done was wait. Wait for a sign of improvement, wait for Penny to wake up. It made Bill feel useless, that he couldn't do something to remedy the situation or even alleviate some of Sookie's distress at having her cousin in such a stagnant condition. The only sign of hope came just a few hours ago when the doctors had removed Penny's breathing tube, explaining that her vitals were strong enough for her to sustain breathing on her own.

Bill didn't like it, this waiting. He remembered the way in which he and Sookie had found Penny - lying on Sookie's porch, unconscious and bleeding from the back of her head. He didn't tell Sookie at the time, but he had smelled fresh vampire blood all over the girl. Someone had cleaned Penny up before leaving her in Bon Temps, and Bill aimed to find out who it was. He had meant to seek Eric's help as soon as they got Penny to the hospital, but when he'd been told Penny was in a coma, it put Bill in the position to just wait for her to wake up, and pray she remembered what had happened to her.

"Bill, she's awake!" Sookie said, her voice interrupting the stillness of the night.

Bill looked at Penny, who still lay with eyes closed on the hospital bed. "You can hear her thoughts now," he surmised.

Sookie turned around from where she sat at Penny's bedside, nodding excitedly. "Thank God!" She said in a high whisper.

He watched as Penny's eyes fluttered open, her gaze glassy from the endless hours spent in slumber. Her gaze focused on Sookie, and Bill decided to remain in the shadows for the moment.

"Penny, honey," Sookie said, resting a hand on Penny's cheek.

"_W—_" Penny tried to say, but stopped. After visibly swallowing, she croaked out, "_Water._"

"Here you go, darlin'," Sookie said, pouring her a glass from the yellow pitcher that sat on the bedside table.

Penny quickly gulped down two cups, and then lay back down against the pillows. She was silent for a few long moments, in which she simply stared at Sookie, her surroundings, trying to register them in her mind. Bill could have sworn he saw the beginnings of fear within her eyes, but he couldn't be sure.

"Penny, what's wrong?" Sookie asked, laying a hand on Penny's where it rested at her side. Bill became uneasy when he saw Penny flinch at the touch, but Sookie didn't see it. "Your thoughts are all jumbled. I can't make sense of 'em…"

"My _thoughts_?" Penny repeated, and now Bill was sure he saw fear in her eyes.

"Well of course, silly!" Sookie said, smiling gently. At Penny's continued confusion, Sookie's smile began to fade. "You've known since the third grade. You liked Bo Johnson and I went and blurted it out to the whole class 'cause I thought you'd said it aloud…"

"I—I'm sorry, I…" Penny began, her voice shaking. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Honey, what's going on?" Sookie asked, both alarmed and concerned at her cousin's reaction. "Penny?"

Penny looked at Sookie, her expression utterly helpless as tears began to well up in her hazel eyes.

"Is that my name?" She asked.

X X X X

"Amnesia?!" Sookie exclaimed, her voice rising two octaves with the dreadfulness of the situation. "How can she have amnesia?"

"Retrograde amnesia is common among patients with brain damage," the doctor related in a calm tone.

"Brain damage?" Sookie repeated in a small voice. "Please tell me my cousin's gonna be all right…"

"Since we don't know how she sustained her injuries, it makes it hard to determine the severity of the retrograde amnesia. Surgery repaired the bleeding she had in her brain, but I can't tell you how long her current condition will persist. It may be one week, one month or even years. You need to prepare yourself for that," the doctor said in a level tone, his expression somber.

"Oh God..." Sookie uttered, looking to Bill for support. He squeezed her closer to him, but remained silent. Sookie took a deep breath, then nodded, returning her attention to the man in the long white coat. "When can she come home?"

Sookie saw the doctor hesitate in responding, as his eyes flashed quickly over to Bill. _I don't feel comfortable sending the girl home with a vampire. Sure, Ms. Stackhouse seems right in the head, but I don't know about trusting anybody with someone like that—_

"Is there a problem, doctor?" Sookie asked, forcibly pushing his thoughts from her mind.

The doctor was quiet for another moment, as if weighing his options. Sookie didn't care to know what he was thinking at that very moment; quite frankly, she'd heard enough. It seems news of Bill Compton had reached the town of Monroe from Bon Temps. What a small world.

"No, Ms. Stackhouse," the doctor replied reluctantly, looking Sookie in the eye. "I can have your cousin's discharge papers ready in an hour for you to sign to release her into your care."

"Great. Thank you so much," Sookie admonished, deciding that a bright smile would hopefully ease the doctor's concerns. By the uneasiness in his stance as he turned and walked down the hall, it most likely hadn't. Once he was gone, Sookie glanced at the door that led to Penny's room, and shook her head.

"Bill, what am I gonna do?" Sookie asked, helpless. She had only felt like this a few times in her life, and she hated the feeling. First she found Penny unconscious on her porch, nearly bleeding to death and, now that she was awake, she didn't remember anything about her life; not where she lived, who she was, who her family were. It just about broke Sookie's heart. She couldn't imagine not being able to remember her brother Jason, Tara, or even Bill - she hoped she never forgot Bill and all he'd done for her over the last several months.

"For starters, you're gonna go home and get some sleep," Bill told her quietly, pulling her from her thoughts. When Sookie opened her mouth to protest, Bill took both her hands in his and clasped them firmly. "Sookie, you're exhausted. You haven't left the hospital in three days, and Penny's already asleep for the night. Please go home and rest; I promise I'll stay here and watch over her until dawn."

He smiled gently, brushing a few strands of her blond hair from her face. Sookie leaned into his touch and let her eyes flutter closed, grateful for it.

"You can begin helping her remember in the morning," he whispered, laying a kiss on her forehead.

X X X X

After Sookie had gone home, Bill remained at the hospital for the remainder of the night. It gave him plenty of time to reflect on the whole situation and how best to handle it. There was no doubt in his mind that Penny was truly suffering from amnesia — Sookie would have been able to discern if it were otherwise. What did trouble him about Penny was the fact of the vampire blood. Her clothes had been saturated with the stench of decay. The vampire was mostly likely turned young and not very long ago, by the smell of the blood.

But now that Penny had no memory of the event…he needed to find out who she was. He wouldn't tell Sookie everything he knew, not yet. He needed answers first. And although there was someone who could help Bill, he would despise ever having to ask—

"Sam…"

Bill's head snapped up at the sound; Penny was talking in her sleep. He listened intently for a few more moments in order to catch anything else that might escape her lips, but after a while, he gave up.

_Sam_, he thought. It was definitely a name. A boyfriend, perhaps? Or the dead vampire? He knew, from speaking with Sookie, that the girl was an only child; she'd never known her father and her mother had passed away when she was ten. That was just one more thing he had to investigate.

It was getting very early now, and Bill could smell the sun's heat encroaching on the dark horizon. The doctors would begin their morning rounds soon, and he didn't want to be the only one in the room when someone arrived to check in on Penny. He would leave, hibernate for the day. And come night, he would go to Fangtasia and ask for Eric's help.

X X X X

For the few brief moments after she opened her eyes, she didn't realize where she was, why there was a slight pressure in her arm, or even why light was shining bright just beyond her closed eyelids. For those few brief, blessed moments, there was no world beyond this haze and she relished in it. She felt free and unrestrained, she felt at peace.

And then she remembered the events of the night before.

Her stomach lurched, and she opened her eyes. There was the banana bag of fluids leading into her arm through a butterfly clip inserted at the crook of her elbow. A nightstand with the same pitcher of water she'd drank from the day before, the same chair pulled up next to her table, the same white washed walls. Instead of night awaiting outside her window, the afternoon sun spilled in, illuminating the room.

"Penny," she said to herself. The name sounded completely foreign to her.

It belonged to someone else, a young girl with bouncing pig tails and an everlasting smile with bright copper hair. It didn't belong to her, a pale-skinned, dark-haired amnesiac who didn't even know what year it was.

"Penelope," she repeated. The young woman named Sookie (odd name, but it somehow suited her sweet disposition) had told her that was her full name. Ever since she was in kindergarten, apparently she had gone by the nickname Penny instead because she couldn't pronounce her full name without flubbing it up.

"Penelope…Jane…Hale." That was supposedly her full, legal name given to her at birth by parents she couldn't even remember. Did she look like her parents? Where were they? She had asked about them last night, but Sookie had sidestepped her question and offered to fill her in on the current state of her life instead.

Penny had attended and graduated from UNC on full scholarship; she was a music major. She wasn't sure what exactly that entailed, or even if she could sing. She hadn't tried yet; she was afraid to. If she couldn't sing like Sookie had said she could, then that meant she had lost more than just the memory of who she was, but her personal talent, too.

"Penelope Jane Hale!" She said quickly, squinting her eyes shut and forcing herself to remember, but her mind remained a blank. Even her voice sounded strange to her.

"Fuck!" She swore suddenly, then her eyes went wide. That didn't sound like anything she had said or thought since she'd woken up…

Something told her it wasn't something one used in every day conversation.

She groaned, beating her head against her pillow a couple of times before letting out a big huff of air. She was letting her frustration get the better of her, but at this point, she really didn't care. Obviously the part of her brain that dealt with language and motor skills had been unaffected by the accident, but her life was a blank, the world was a blank, she didn't recognize the one person who was the only family that had come to visit her while she was in the hospital.

Slowly, gradually, the frustration ebbed into something softer, colder, and she turned her head to look out the window, though there wasn't much of a view.

She had never felt more alone.


	3. Dead But Breathing

Disclaimer is out for a drink at Fangtasia.

A big thanks to all those who reviewed (and all those who put this on their alert, too!). Eric finally makes his grand entrance in this chapter. I did my best to keep him in character, please let me know what you think of the characterization : )

Also, could someone recommend me some good Bill/Sookie or Eric/OC stories? Thanks! & don't forget to review!

Nocturne

The club was pulsing with bodies and music. It didn't matter that the majority of bodies did not have a pulse, the night was young, and the blood fresh.

Eric Northman sat atop his throne, looking down on all of those around him. It came natural to him, viewing humans and young vampires as inferior to him. In all aspects, they were weaker, foolish and too lustful – whether it be for sex or blood – for their own good. He liked to think he had mastered the majority of his impulses over the centuries – or at least, learned how to mask them to the point where comparisons were never drawn between him and someone lesser than him.

Mortals were temporary, transient – beings drifting along their lives with no sense of time, wisdom or even what to do with their pitiful existences.

However, Eric could admit they served some dismal purpose in the universe, and that was to entertain. It never quite escaped his amusement, that of a human groveling at his feet for the chance to bleed by his hand – or rather, his fangs. They were fragile things, humans, amusing dolls with painted lips and paper thin clothes that barely concealed their deeper flaws.

Most nights they were able to provide him with some amusement, but tonight…well, to put it simply, he was quite bored with it all. He had only come to the club to escape the monotonous silence of his own home, he would soon go underground for the day, but not soon enough.

Sighing, Eric turned to Pam. "I want a snack," he said simply.

Pam smiled that slow smile of hers and walked off in search of his request. He closed his eyes, letting the heavy strings of the atmospheric music wash over his senses and drown out the din of his guests. Only three more hours until they closed, and a lucky seven before the sun would rise.

_Plenty of time_, he mused, straightening in his stance as he saw Pam leading a dainty brown-haired girl by the hand towards where he sat.

He studied her appearance, taking in every detail. Her hairline was touched lightly with sweat, no doubt from dancing, pulled back in a severe bun at the base of her skull. Her make-up was applied with a generous hand, kohl lining her eyes with shocking red lipstick against her pale skin. She was dressed in a small black leather dress that cut off mid-thigh, a perfect length to show off her slim legs.

By human standards, she was quite beautiful. Eric only cared to know what her blood smelled like.

As Pam approached with the girl, Eric was able to pick up on a faint scent of coffee, cigarettes and sweat on the girl, a not all together unpleasant scent. He didn't feel an immediate thrill, but nodded to Pam to show his approval as she left the two in peace.

The girl immediately dropped to her knees, reaching to brush her fingertips across his black shoes as she bowed deeper.

Eric didn't want her on her knees, at least not yet, and he also didn't want an audience. The only occasions in which public displays of feeding were beneficial were when he wished to engender fear in his patrons, and he had no interest in doing so tonight. Most of them had been on their best worshiping behavior, most likely since they had heard the last bartender had been brutally slaughtered by another vampire with Eric's approval. No human wanted to be a part of real violence, not when the lights were still on at Fangtasia, not while they still thought they were safe in this world.

He led the girl to one of the back rooms of the club, smartly locking the door behind him. She began peeling off her skin tight dress, not wasting any time.

"Wait," he ordered in a low tone.

The girl froze immediately, one of her breasts partly exposed. Eric took two steps towards her, his height dwarfing hers although she was only a few inches shorter than he. He relished at the look of sudden hesitation, fear, in her eyes and bent his head slowly down to inhale the scent along her neckline.

He licked the exposed skin there, felt her tremble beneath his touch. It only goaded him further as he cupped one side of face and tilted her head to the side so her neck was perfectly angled for him to feed.

His fangs protruded from his gums and within the next instant, they were digging into her flesh and sucking the blood from her body. Her blood tasted of the traces her scent had hinted at – coffee, cigarette smoke, mint and something uniquely hers, even if it wasn't very appealing to his senses.

He continued to feed, pressing his other hand against her back as he felt her go weak in his arms. When he was finished, he licked the wound one time before pulling back and catching her gaze in his, demanding her full attention.

Satisfied as he watched the wound begin to heal itself, he spoke slowly and clearly, "You were looking for the bathroom but became lost. You don't remember how you got here, but you're going to go home and sleep for the rest of the night. You won't remember me or this exchange by tomorrow."

The girl's gaze, glassy from losing nearly a pint of blood and being glamoured, became unfocused as she nodded and looked down at her hands, tilting her head to the side in confusion. When she looked up again, there was that familiar mix of reverence and fear in her eyes. Eric didn't wait for her to begin begging him to feed on her again, he had had enough for one night.

Eric was surprised to see Bill waiting for him when he returned to his honored seat in Fangtasia. He wondered where Jessica was, wreaking havoc in some part of town at the moment, and how Sookie had taken the news at the arrival of Bill's newborn. Whatever the issue was, Eric would discuss it with him in private.

"Bill, you're out late," Eric commented as he walked up to the vampire. "Where's your interesting friend?"

Uncertainty flashed across Bill's face and, for a moment, Eric wondered if he had suspected a double meaning in the phrasing of the question.

"Sookie's fine, thank you," Bill answered, a little uncomfortably. "It is someone else I came here to speak with you about. A relative of hers."

"Another Stackhouse?" Eric asked, arching an eyebrow and exchanging a quick glance with Pam. Perhaps this night wouldn't prove so boring after all.

"Hale, actually," Bill corrected quietly.

"It's all the same blood," Eric shrugged and Pam laughed softly to herself. "Let's talk in my office."

Eric turned and moved towards his office at the back of the club, Bill following silently. The crowd seemed to part for the two vampires as they made their way towards Eric's office, and while the attention seemed to make Bill visibly flinch, Eric simply ignored it for the moment, almost numb to the kind of attention he always received from those who feared him – which, coincidentally, was nearly everyone he ever came in to contact with.

"So," Eric said, leaning back in his chair as he stared across the desk at Bill, "you haven't killed any more vampires, I hope."

Again, the uncertainty flashed across Bill's face. Eric was growing tired of his unease and sighed.

"Spit it out, Bill," Eric told him. "Whatever it is, I will find a way to deal with it, whether you like the end result or not."

"Your brand of honesty always was refreshing," Bill commented dryly.

Eric inclined his head in response. "Then please, continue."

"Sookie's cousin on her mother's side, Penelope Hale," Bill began.

"Penelope," Eric said, mulling the name over in his mind. "Her parents must have thought a great deal of her at birth."

"It's a family name apparently," Bill explained. "But she goes by Penny. Or at least, that's what Sookie tells me."

"Is this Penny incapable of telling you herself?" Eric asked, his interest mildly peaked at how vague Bill was making himself out to be.

"Sookie found her unconscious and bleeding from the head on her porch a week ago," Bill said, but Eric was still unsure how this matter required his attention. "Most of the blood was hers," Bill continued, "but some of it…was that of a vampire."

And now he had Eric's attention. "A transfer while feeding?" He asked.

"Too much for a simple exchange," Bill said, having already considered that option. "And her blood smelled clean, virgin. I'm certain she has never been fed on before."

"And the reason you can't ask her about it?" Eric's tone was slightly impatient.

This time, Bill smirked. "She has retrograde amnesia. She doesn't remember anything before waking up in the hospital in Monroe."

Eric was silent for a moment, his expression giving away none of his thoughts as he considered the situation. If a vampire had attacked the girl, it fell under his jurisdiction to investigate the cause of the attack. But if the girl had been dumped in Bon Temps on Sookie's doorstep for a reason, then that could mean that someone was sending a message, to either her or Bill. The amnesia only complicated matters further (much to Eric's chagrin), though he had to admit the mystery did interest him. Sookie Stackhouse had proved to be much more than meets the eye ever since he had first met her; he wondered if her cousin would prove to be just as interesting.

"Bring her here," Eric finally said. "I wish to question her directly."

The expression on Bill's face was evident of his thoughts – it was the conclusion he expected but didn't like. But Eric couldn't do anything further unless he spoke with the girl.

"I can have Sookie bring her by tomorrow night," Bill suggested reluctantly.

"After closing. I assume the reason you didn't come to me with this sooner is because of the girl's condition," Eric said, standing as Bill followed suit.

Bill nodded, heaving a deep, human and unnecessary sigh. "It wasn't to spite you, if that's what you're asking. Penny's been very…skittish ever since she woke up. The only person she trusts right now is Sookie."

To get the truth out of her, Eric knew, he would have to become the second person she trusted.

X X X X

"What did little old Bill want?" Pam asked as she walked up to where Eric sat at the bar.

It was sometime after two in the morning and the club patrons were beginning to go home, some driving, some calling cabs to come pick them up. Eric watched them herd like cattle towards the entrance. The only people left in Fangtasia were himself, Pam, the new bartender, Avery and the bar back, Seth. The two employees were cleaning up the bar as Pam settled on a bar stool next to Eric. Soft acoustic music now played in the background of the emptying club.

"A favor," Eric said, turning his gaze to Pam. "What else?"

Pam shrugged, dusting some invisible spec of food off of the bar surface. "You have to give the boy some credit. He does seem to find the most interesting pets."

"Perhaps," Eric said, "But this one is untouched."

"So was Sookie once upon a time," Pam smirked. "They'll be here tomorrow, then?"

"After we close," Eric nodded. "If Bill's instincts about this girl are right, then he will need my help to resolve whatever problems are haunting her mind."

"I thought that was Sookie's job," Pam countered.

Eric's eyes sharpened for a fraction of a second before he realized Pam was simply commenting objectively on the situation. He was about to reply when something caught his attention – a lilting melody his ears picked up on almost immediately.

"Turn that up," he told Avery, who stood just a few feet from the stereo located behind the bar. The bartender had turned up the radio as soon as the speakers had stopped blasting music after everyone had left the club.

Avery did as he was told and Eric focused on some distant point beyond Pam, his senses honing in completely on the song he heard playing through the radio. The music wasn't beautiful, but it was unique – the melody sounding almost like a nocturne, whimsical and alluring with its deep notes. The voice accompanying the music was what was holding his attention – a young woman's, gentle and tempting, quiet and powerful at once. In all of his years of long life, he could honestly say he hadn't heard anything quite like it before. The melody seemed to draw its inspiration from Chopin, but the voice – it was entirely new, foreign, and…something else, he couldn't put a name to it.

"Eric?"

He was jolted from his thoughts and saw Pam giving him a rather odd look. He paused for a moment, his attention shifting between the ending notes of the song and Pam. It took him a moment to re-assemble his thoughts, still lost in the lilting notes of the music.

"Find that singer. Whatever it takes," Eric ordered her finally, then turned and left, disappearing into the night.


	4. Wreck of the Day

Insert standard disclaimer here.

Thank you so much to all who reviewed last chapter! You guys are a huge part of my inspiration for this. As for this chapter, some more back story for Penny and she and Eric finally meet : ) Enjoy and review!

Nocturne

"You always looked so beautiful in that dress."

Penny smiled up at Sookie, thankful for the compliment. They had spent the better part of the night going through old scrapbooks their mothers had put together when they were children, mementos of the past. Penny sat with a pile of albums on her lap on the couch while, Sookie next to her, thumbed through each page, explaining who everyone was to Penny in an attempt to jog the girl's memory.

According to Sookie, the photograph in question had been taken their senior year at the school dance. Penny had dragged Sookie to all of the surrounding towns, including Monroe, searching for a dress that was unlike any of the ones that were going to be worn to the dance.

"You were so sure you were gonna find somethin' there!" Sookie said, resting her hand on the picture of Penny in a light green floor-length dress. "And you did, honey. You looked like a star in that dress."

"I wish I could remember it," Penny said quietly, her eyes glossing over with tears as she stared where Sookie pointed, at a picture that had been taken five years ago.

It had been a week since she'd woken up in the hospital at Monroe, those first few days proving to be the absolute shakiest. There was something warm, familiar and kind about Sookie – she felt naturally drawn to her and safe when she was with her, but the other constant presence in the house – Bill – she didn't know what she thought of him yet. She knew he was a vampire, and extremely dangerous, but Sookie had vouched for him. And at this point, Sookie was the only one she could really trust right now. She had no one else and, even if she did, she didn't know where they were. According to Sookie, Penny had written her a few weeks ago, telling her about possibly joining a jazz band once she finished school and that there hadn't been any indication that Penny had been in trouble at the time.

She'd met a few other people in town since Sookie had brought her home from the hospital – Arlene, Sookie's co-worker; Tara, Sookie's very good friend and Sam, Sookie and Tara's boss who owned the local bar, Merlotte's.

Apparently Penny had been friends with all of them growing up. Arlene used to babysit for her, Sookie and Tara when they were young. Sam had thrown her a huge going away party when she had left for North Carolina, pulling out all the stops to celebrate the occasion of a local girl going off to attend university. She had been told all of this, but when Sookie had brought her to Merlotte's for dinner late one night, Bill accompanying them, she saw these people and didn't recognize their faces or voices. No flashes of déjà vu, no familiarity. It had frightened her and she had begun to cry, so Sookie had taken her home and Penny had slept the rest of the night.

That was a few days ago and ever since, Sookie had decided to pull out the old photo albums to help Penny better adjust to the whole situation. Baby steps, Sookie had told her.

"When was this taken?" Penny asked, pointing to a photo in the right-hand corner of the page.

Sookie looked at the picture, and Penny saw her face immediate soften.

"About thirteen years ago. Your mama took us – you, me and Jason – to Monroe one day during the summer. She found this beautiful little park tucked away at the edge of town. She asked around, people said they liked to walk their dogs through it a lot." Sookie laughed softly at this, "So we dug in, pulled out our lunch and played for the whole afternoon. Here," she said, pointing to a little girl with dark blonde hair and pig tails, "You were tryin' to strike a pose, like a model. Jason took the picture. Here I am," Sookie said, indicating a slightly older girl with white blond hair, "tryin' to keep up with you."

"And the woman in the picture?" Penny asked, looking at Sookie. "That's my mother?"

Sookie paused for a long moment, a trace of pain striking her face as she struggled to find the right words to say to Penny, but Penny was already putting the pieces together.

"She _was_ my mother," Penny corrected herself, her voice trailing off into the silence.

"She passed away, darlin'. Awhile back," Sookie told her quietly. She rest a hand on Penny's where it lay in her lap, squeezing gently. "You were in the fourth grade; I was just startin' junior high."

Penny wasn't sure how to react to the news. She stared hard at the woman in the picture – bright green eyes, frizzy blond hair and a wide smile. She looked like a stranger to her. A pang of frustration stabbed at her gut, and Penny tried to push it down. How was she supposed to act, finding out that her mother was dead for a second time? She couldn't ever remember knowing the woman, but she knew that was just the amnesia. She almost dreaded the moment her memories would come flooding back to her. _I__f _they ever came back…

"How did she die?" Penny asked, her throat tightening involuntarily.

"Penny, we don't have to go over this right now if you don't want to…" Sookie said, closing the photo album and placing it on the coffee table in front of them.

"No, I need to know," Penny said. "I gotta know where I came from. You've told me so much about how I grew up here. Please…tell me about my parents."

"All right, darlin'," Sookie said, squeezing Penny's hand once more. "I'll tell you."

Penny listened patiently as Sookie recounted everything she could remember about Penny's parents, Savannah and Zachary Hale. They had been high school sweethearts since sophomore year. Savannah had become pregnant three years after Sookie had been born and, three months after finding out, Savannah and Zachary had been married at a local church in town, with Sookie's mother serving as Savannah's maid of honor. They had named their daughter for Savannah's great grandmother, and her middle name after Zachary's mother. Since the Hales lived just down the street from the Stackhouses, Penny, Sookie and Jason spent a lot of time together, along with Sookie's close friend, Tara. They especially liked going to Sookie's grandmother's house.

Savannah Hale loved to sing. Whenever the family would go out to celebrate, the patrons would always call for her to sing a song to karaoke or even an original one she had written herself. Zachary worked at a factory in Monroe and was gone a lot, but he did his best to support the family. For nearly ten years, they lived and struggled to give their daughter a good life. They were on their way home from a work party hosted by Zachary's boss in Monroe when a drunk driver had crashed into them, sending their car topping over twice. Zachary, the driver and point of impact of the crash, had been killed instantly. Savannah had lay in a coma for several hours after the crash, but had been pronounced dead the next day.

Sookie and Jason had already gone to live with their grandmother after their parents had been killed in a flash flood several years earlier and, after the death of Penny's parents, Miss Stackhouse took her in as well. They called her Gran and were as much of a family as anyone brought together by tragedy could ever be.

There were tears in Sookie's eyes as she recounted the story and, after she brushed away at her eyes a couple times, Penny asked, "Where is she now?"

"She was killed," Sookie told her, the shaking in her voice betraying her calm expression. "It should have been me, but I wasn't home. She died in my place."

_Oh lord_, Penny thought. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear anything more.

Sookie drew her into a tight hug, saying, "I swear to God I'm gonna figure out what happened to you, honey. I've lost too much of my family already and you are _not_ going to be added to that list…"

A few hours later, after returning to the photo albums and filling in Penny on the last twenty-two years of her life, Sookie pulled a blanket over her cousin's sleeping form on the couch, tucking it under her chin and resting a hand on her head for a moment. She heard the front door creak open and closed, and turned to see Bill enter the room. She immediately went to him, enveloping him in a fierce hug.

"I thought you'd never get back," Sookie said into his shirt.

"I've got too many reasons not to return," Bill said, his voice comforting right by her ear.

The pair pulled back from each other, Sookie keeping her hand in his as she led him out of the living room and into the kitchen. The last several hours had taken more toll on her than she cared to admit. Somehow, the sight of Bill, someone she counted on to protect her when she couldn't take care of herself, had brought her nearly to her knees after having to explain her family's painful past to Penny.

They each took a seat at the small kitchen table, Sookie keep one hand in Bill's as she let out a long, deep sigh.

"What did Eric say?" Sookie asked the inevitable question.

Bill looked down at her query, wondering how best to phrase what he had to tell Sookie next. She wasn't going to like any part of it. "He has agreed to meet with her, but under his conditions. We must bring her tomorrow night to Fangtasia, after closing hours."

"So soon?" Sookie said, suddenly distressed again. "Do you think Penny will be ready?"

"I can't answer that, Sookie," Bill told her gently, "Only you can. But I will say this – whatever trouble landed your cousin here in Bon Temps, it would be best if we had Eric on our side before any investigation were to begin…" He trailed off, not knowing how to say what he had to next.

Sookie, sensing his hesitation, squeezed his hand, forcing him to meet her eyes. "I know she had the vampire blood on her, but…what are you not telling me?"

Finally, Bill relented. "When I brought you to Fangtasia before, it was under the guise that you were mine. It kept you protected from any reprisals the vampires might have wanted to carry out against me, because it would be breaking the rules of our world if they did."

Sookie understood what Bill was implying. "But Penny doesn't have that same protection. You're worried someone might try something if we take her to the club?"

Bill shrugged, a wry smile slowly forming on his face. "I don't know if you've noticed the attention that you attract, Sookie, and I'm afraid it will be the same when we bring Penny there tomorrow night. Beauty seems to be genetic in the Stackhouse women."

Sookie almost smiled at the compliment, but it caused her too much worry in the back of her mind. She didn't want to put her cousin in danger, but waiting until something happened might be just as dangerous. And Bill couldn't be everywhere at once to protect the both of them, especially when he had Jessica to watch out for now, as much as Sookie despised how he had been roped into that situation.

"Penny doesn't have any…abilities, does she?" Bill asked after a moment.

Sookie tilted her head to one side, thinking for a moment. "I don't think so. I mean, she can't read minds, if that's what you're asking."

"But nothing else…peculiar?" Bill pressed again.

Sookie bit her lip, thinking back to several times after Penny had come to live with her, Jason and Gran that a red flag had been raised.

"When she sings," Sookie finally said. "Nobody could help but listen to her, stop everything they were doing. When we were young, after she came to live here with us, I remember this one time…"

The memory flashed before Sookie's eyes: she and Penny had been out in the driveway playing hopscotch as the sun was setting behind the horizon. Gran had been calling them to come in, but the girls had pretended not to hear her so they could have a few extra minutes of playing time. Out of nowhere, a coyote had come trotting from out behind the bushes and right onto the driveway. Both girls had been scared into a stunned silence.

"I thought we were gonna be attacked," Sookie said, coming back to the present. "But out of nowhere, Penny just started singin'. It was a lullaby, one her mother used to sing to her, and she walked right up to the coyote, and patted him on the head like he was just a stray dog. He scampered off soon after that, and Penny just smiled at me, then said we should head inside before Gran got mad at us."

Bill was quiet for a long time after that, his gaze pinned to somewhere over Sookie's shoulder as he considered her words.

"Bill?" Sookie asked, when he didn't speak. "What are you thinkin'?"

"That maybe it would be best if we kept this between us for now," he replied. "Eric is already suspicious of Penny because of her relation to you. I don't want to give him another reason to take up interest in your cousin."

That, Sookie knew, was the last thing on earth she ever wanted to have happen.

X X X X

"Thanks again," Pam said, just before she snapped her cell phone shut. If she were human, she would have heaved a long sigh, or rolled her eyes, or something equally put upon. But she wasn't human, she was vampire, and couldn't remember the last time she had felt this irritated as either of the two species.

Eric and his silly requests. Not that she'd ever tell that to his face, he'd just get his pants in a twist. He had asked a few nights ago for her to track down a singer he'd heard on the radio. _Whatever it takes_, he'd said. Well, it had taken much more than she thought it would. She was familiar with the station the radio had been set to – Avery kept it on the same channel every night and turned it up after closing. What she wasn't familiar with was speaking with the petty human executives in charge of the stations that set the schedules for which song played when. She'd just gotten off the phone with one of their employees just now, having finally gotten a name out of them after some bribing.

_Scheming Star_, that was the name of Eric's song. It had been recorded by an independent label in North Carolina and had been slowly gaining popularity and subsequently being played on some of the late night stations, as the song was primarily listed as a nocturne. It was an original piece, apparently – both the music and lyrics – by some woman named Savannah James.

She'd written the information down on one of the bar napkins and got up off of the bar stool she'd been sitting on. Fangtasia was closing in ten minutes, but the patrons had already started to filter out of the front entrance. She made her way past the empty tables and dance stages towards where Eric sat at his usual spot, and held out the napkin to him.

"Your singer," Pam said with a bored look.

Eric took the napkin, glanced at it and then slipped it inside his jacket pocket. "Thank you, Pam," he said quietly.

Pam nodded her acceptance, then turned at the sound of Avery greeting someone coming through the door. A slow smile crept over her face as she watched Bill, Sookie and a third person enter the bar, making their way slowly towards where she and Eric were. The girl, who kept a few steps behind Sookie, was also a few inches shorter than the twenty-five year-old-blond. If Pam had to guess, she would have to say the girl was no more than twenty years old, maybe twenty-one. She had dark auburn hair past her shoulders, the same pale skin as Sookie and, if her eyesight served her right in the dim light of the bar, a pair of bright hazel eyes.

"Let's greet our guests," Eric said, stepping down from his throne and holding out his hand for Pam to take. The two ancient vampires walked down the few steps before them and met Bill, Sookie and whom Pam could only assume was Sookie's cousin by one of the club's tables.

"Bill," Eric nodded, his gaze slipping easily to Sookie and then to her cousin. "Introduce us, please."

"Right," Bill said, almost to himself. Pam noted that he looked especially uncomfortable, holding Sookie's hand close to his side. "Penny," he looked to the petite brunette, "This is Eric Northman, a sheriff of our world. And Pam, his…"

"Sidekick," Pam said, an amused glint in her eye as she took in Penny's appearance. The girl was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a white blouse, no jacket because it was a humid night, or so she'd been told by some of the human patrons earlier.

"Pleasure to meet you both," Penny said, and Pam noted the slight tremor beneath her voice, even if humans couldn't catch it with their less-than average senses. There was something else familiar about her voice that Pam couldn't place her finger on as well.

Eric, not taking his eyes off of Penny for a second, said, "Shall we sit?"

"Sure," Penny said guilelessly, moving to sit down at the table.

"No," Pam said suddenly, her eyes narrowing as she studied Penny more closely. "I have a better idea."

"I don't think—" Bill began, but Eric cut him off with one silent glance.

"I want her to sing," Pam finally said.


	5. The Call

Insert standard disclaimer here.

Eighteen reviews for one chapter! I'm absolutely stunned, but so flattered, too. Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to review this! Yes, Pam is quite a smart cookie. And let me know if Eric remains in character during this chap – I write from his POV again.

I also posted a picture of how I envision Penny in my mind while writing, the link is in my profile. Check it out. That said, happy reading & don't forget to review!

Nocturne

"Sing?" Penny repeated in a faint voice.

"Tra la la," Pam elaborated with a smirk, her eyes narrowing, "And all that jazz."

"What an interesting idea," Penny heard Eric murmur.

"Sookie," she said, her voice raising half an octave as she fought to keep her fear in check. Here she was, standing within spitting distance of two vampires she had just met – one that reminded her of a Viking, the other of a praying mantis – not to mention a third vampire whom she had only met a week ago. Her only ally, she felt, was Sookie, and as her gaze flickered between her cousin and the blond vampire, Penny was fighting down panic in her stomach.

Sookie's hand reached out and grabbed on to Penny's, a movement motivated by comfort, not desperation, on Sookie's part. Squeezing her hand tightly in reassurance, the blond young woman addressed the two vampires.

"Why would you want her to go and do a thing like that?" Sookie asked innocently, and even to Penny's heightened sense of hearing, her cousin exuded nearly complete confidence with her tone. "We came here to talk, not to entertain."

"Too late for that," Eric said, his eyes on Penny.

Penny's head snapped up at his words, her eyes going slightly wide. She told herself to calm down, to breathe, remembering Sookie's encouraging words before they'd left the house – _You'll be safe, I promise, nothing will happen to you_ – and set her stance in what she hoped was as confident-looking as Sookie had sounded a moment before.

Eric seemed to sense the change in her, and arched one eyebrow. He said something to the blond vampire, Pam, next to him in a language Penny didn't fully understand, but was surprised to realize she recognized one of the words – _fighter_. He had said something about a fighter. Certainly he didn't mean her?

Eric turned his gaze from Penny, slowly, like a cat watching its prey, and settled his attention on Bill. "You came to me for help, and this is how I can." Then his dark gaze returned to Penny. "Sing for us, Penelope."

"Penny," she corrected him automatically, and saw Bill tense up beside her.

Eric smiled a very slow, very dangerous smile at her as Pam seemed to stifle a chuckle. "Penelope," he reiterated. "It's a beautiful name, one you shouldn't be ashamed to use."

Penny ignored the chill that traveled up her spine as he continued to hold her gaze. Everything about him screamed at her to head for the door and get the hell out of dodge. His long blond hair seemed from another era, his pale skin befitting of a vampire. He was tall, surely a foot taller than Penny, but it was his eyes that scared her the most. 'Predatorial' was the only word she could think of to describe them.

Turning to her cousin, Penny asked with her eyes what she should do. Sookie squeezed her hand again, a small smile gracing her features even though Penny could see it didn't reach her eyes.

"It's up to you, darlin'," she told Penny. "We can leave." At this Eric seemed to bristle, but Sookie didn't spare him a glance as she repeated, "We can leave and go home, or you can do what they ask of you."

Penny was sure she heard a note of hesitation in her cousin's voice, and wasn't sure why. There wasn't any harm in her singing – though she wasn't even sure if she could remember how to sing, let alone sing well enough for anyone to _want_ to hear her. She looked again at the vampire that reminded her of a Viking – Eric was his name. She would do anything not to be the in same room as him for a moment longer; that was how much he unsettled her. All the way down to her bones. But…she wanted answers. She wasn't quite sure why the vampire name Pam wanted her to sing, but if it would help her figure out how she'd landed in Bon Temps…

"Okay," Penny finally said, and felt Sookie's hand give an involuntary squeeze. "I'll do it."

"Very well," Eric nodded, seemingly pleased. He exchanged glances with Pam, who then turned and headed into one of the back rooms. She emerged a moment later carrying an unmarked CD and a sheet of paper.

Penny noticed that Bill's tense expression went from one of apprehension to disgust. "You planned this," he accused, his eyes boring into Eric's.

"Did I?" Eric said, his voice dangerously low. "No, I don't believe I'm that clever. At least not this time," he said, glancing meaningfully at Pam as her ever-present smile simply widened.

It was clear to Penny that Pam was the reason she was going to have to put on a show for everyone in order to get some answers about her condition.

"Your lyrics," Pam said, holding the sheet out for Penny to take. "We have the instrumental version of the song. Do take your time and catch on."

Penny nodded distractedly and took the lyrics, glancing over them quickly. She paused at the title of the song. _Scheming Star_. Recognition prickled at the edge of her mind, but before she could grab onto it, the feeling floated back into nothing and she was once again the amnesiac she had been for the past week or so.

The club didn't have a formal stage for Penny to stand on, but Eric had indicated a platform where a microphone stood waiting. She felt silly standing in front of them in just jeans, a blouse and flip flops, but what could she do? She wanted answers, and she wanted them as quickly as possible. Bill had assured her that if vampires had been at all involved in her accident, then Eric would know how to pursue an investigation. As much as the modern Viking scared her, she needed his help.

Pam walked around behind the bar, slipped the CD into a player built into the wall and hit the play button. Soft, jazzy music filled the club after a moment, touched with a hint of piano and saxophone. Penny closed her eyes unconsciously, listening to the music, and shutting out the four people that stood before her, watching her every move. She studied the music in her mind, searching for a starting point, counting off mentally. She wasn't quite sure how she knew what to do, but she let her voice follow the melody.

"_Love…what metal are you made of?_"

It was a shaky beginning, a little off, but she caught up, found her place and continued to sing the lyrics off the page Pam had handed her.

"_You must be from some scheming star__  
Love, you're wicked and heavenly…__  
You set me free…then you lock the door.  
I can't go back, and I can't go forward  
You got me wrapped around your finger…  
Tie a rope around me—  
Ready, aim and pull the trigger—_

_Love, you push me and say I've fallen  
It's your fault really…if I'm a fool  
This train don't stop and it don't go nowhere…  
You got me wrapped around your finger  
You wrote the song, and you made me the singer…_

Penny let her voice drift off as the music reached a lazy but seductive climax with the piano and then she finished off.

"_Love, tell me what metal are you made of  
Well…you must be from some scheming star…"_

She surprised even herself when the music came to an end. The gentle but lilting melody and the lyrics had awoken something within her, a deep longing, the same longing she'd felt when she'd been looking at the photo albums of her family with Sookie earlier. She'd had no idea just how well she'd done until she looked up from her paper to see the stunned faces of both Bill and Sookie, a strangely satisfied expression on Pam's face…and one of complete and utter confusion on Eric's.

Penny found she couldn't break Eric's gaze as easily as she had before, and simply stared into his light – but intimidating – eyes until he finally seemed to remember where and who he was. The confused expression was replaced with one of calm indifference, and the silence following Penny's performance was broken suddenly by Sookie clapping excitedly for her.

"Penny, that was amazing!" Sookie exclaimed, her eyes alight with happy surprise.

Penny smiled at her cousin, grateful. "Thanks, Sook," she said, forcing herself to ignore the fact that Eric was still staring at her intently.

X X X X

Eric liked to think of himself as immune to nearly the entire spectrum of human emotion. Seeing as most of his kind viewed humans as food and nothing more – despite some of their more admirable physical and psychological qualities – it seemed to fit with the way he would live for the rest of his lone, immortal life. This had been his approach to dealing with humans ever since he had been turned. Toy with them for a little while, for what wayward child didn't like playing with their food before digesting it, and then dispose of them before anything remotely human within him could be awoken by their desperate pleas to feed on them again and again.

This idiot-proof way of viewing the world had served him well for a very long time – hell, it was a way of life that his friend and colleague Pam swore by. It was, however, a viewpoint entirely shattered the moment Penelope Hale had sung the nocturne he had heard on the radio a few nights ago.

It was unmistakably her voice. He knew it the moment she had finished the first line of the song. Pam had known it before that, sensing it just from her speaking voice. It annoyed Eric that he hadn't been able to pick up on the same nuance, though he had admittedly been distracted with the simple but unique beauty that was Penelope's. Her voice was even more captivating, even for a human's. Even for a vampire's.

Perhaps Bill wasn't as moronic as he thought for protecting Sookie as closely as he did.

Eric swatted the thought out of his mind, and focused on the task at hand. They were all in his office now, away from the prying eyes and ears of the night staff that had yet to leave the bar completely. He was sitting behind his desk, Pam standing on his left while Sookie and Penny occupied the two chairs across from him. Bill hung back near the entrance, arms crossed about his chest, a permanent frown on his face.

"You present an intriguing case, Ms. Hale," Eric told her, admiring the way just his voice made her seem to go on edge, however best she tried to disguise it.

Penny asked, "Does that mean you'll help me?"

He let a smirk flicker across his face, continuing to enjoy the way in which her heart rate was slowly climbing, a constant pulse just beneath her ribcage. She really was quite pretty – perhaps too young yet to be called truly beautiful – even by human standards.

"It does," Eric said at length. He noticed Sookie seemed to relax where she sat, though Bill still had the frown on his face, pissed off about something or other, Eric really didn't care to know what unless it directly pertained to the mystery surrounding Penny Hale.

"I will communicate with my contacts in North Carolina, and see if there has been any unusual activity," Eric said, sliding into a professional tone as he focused his thoughts on the task at hand. "If someone put out a hit on you, the people I have in place there will surely know of it."

Her eyes widened slightly at the last sentence, and he wondered if it irked her that he had people in place so close to where she lived. Or perhaps she wasn't simply stunned at the idea that someone would want her dead. He hadn't heard of her before Bill had brought her to his attention a week ago, and seeing – _hearing_ – her now, he knew that was a damn shame.

She wasn't off limits to him, he knew, but he also didn't want to lay claim – get her out of his system, or in it – so to speak, until he knew more of her history. Her virgin blood was very tempting.

Another thought occurred to Eric and, slipping seamlessly into Swedish, he addressed Pam at his side, "_We shouldn't rule out the possibility that she is a siren_."

Pam nodded silently in agreement, her eyes on Penny. When Eric returned his gaze to the brunette girl, he noticed a hint of recognition in her eyes.

"Something wrong?" He said, not that he truthfully cared.

Penny's gaze narrowed slightly, as if she was debating whether or not to answer. She looked at Sookie, for encouragement or permission, and then spoke.

"I understood what you said," she told him, then amended, "At least, a part of it: enchantress." He couldn't stop the surprise that showed in his face. "You called me an enchantress?" She asked, and damned if he didn't hear a note of sarcasm coloring the undertone of her question.

He was irritated to realize Sookie was smiling; even Bill looked partially amused by Eric being caught in the verbal trap.

But he recovered quickly, as he always did – even with Penny's hazel eyes trained on him. "You continue to surprise, Ms. Hale. I did not refer to you as an enchantress; not exactly. I suggested to Pam that you might be a siren."

That certainly caught her off guard, including both Sookie and Bill.

"That's not possible," Bill spoke for the first time since they entered the office. "Sirens are a myth."

"Really?" Now Eric was amused. "And what do you call us? A scary bedtime story?"

Bill visibly bit back a response, and Eric was satisfied with that. Returning his attention to Penny, he said, "I will contact you in a few days if anything pans out in North Carolina. Meanwhile, it would be helpful if you kept yourself out of harm's way until then. The smell of dead bodies in the summer is something I'm sure neither I nor the coroner wants to deal with right now."

The comment was meant to startle her, and it did, though not as much as he hoped. He noticed the expression of disgust on Sookie's face, and simply smiled.

"That will be all for now, Ms. Hale," Eric said, dismissively. "Sookie. Bill. Always a pleasure."

X X X X

"Is he always such a—such a—"

"Bastard?" Sookie finished, giving Penny a sympathetic smile.

"Yes," Penny nodded decisively. "A bastard. That's exactly what he is. Ugh!" She made a face, running a shaky hand through her long brown hair, and continued to pace the length of Sookie's living room. Sookie and Bill watched her, half amused, half worried, from where they sat together on the couch.

"And what's worse is_…_" Penny continued on, reaching the wall, turning on her heel and pacing back again, "is that I can't tell him that. Not without him ripping out my throat for it, anyway."

Sookie looked both appalled and worried at the idea, but Bill said quietly, "He wouldn't do that."

Penny stopped her pacing, giving Bill her full attention. "Why not? Humans are like cockroaches to him, aren't they?"

Bill spared her an amused look, then turned serious again. "An interesting analogy, but no. No matter how you paint it, humans are the most substantial and satisfying source of food for our kind." Penny suppressed a shudder at that. "And as barbaric as it was to suggest the inopportune timing your death would cause him, he wants to know who attacked you as much as you do. He is sheriff, and a wayward vampire attack on a human is unacceptable. Without you, the trail would run cold."

"But I can't remember anything!" Penny said, frustrated now. "What good am I with amnesia?"

"Better than dead," was Bill's grim but honest reply.

That made Penny think of something else, and she felt her heart drop into her stomach. "He won't…he wouldn't – _turn_ me, would he?"

Bill seemed to think on that for a moment, but eventually shook his head. "As interesting as you are to him right now, I don't believe he would. He might proposition you, but nothing more than that."

Proposition. The word sent chills down Penny's spine. When she was in bed later that night, unable to drift easily off to sleep, she lay awake thinking of all the terrible things Eric Northman could do to her without even batting an eyelash. As comforting as Bill's words were, and Sookie's encouragement as well, she still wasn't comfortable with the idea of going to the Viking-vampire (as she had begun to call him to herself) for help. That would mean she was indebted to him, and she didn't want to think what he might ask in return to repay that debt.

He was handsome, ancient – but most of all, he was deadly. No matter how much one part of her insisted on trusting him because of his attractive appearance, she knew a wolf in sheep's clothing when she saw one. Bill was attractive as well, but gentlemanly and truly did treat her cousin Sookie like she was a princess. That was different from the way Eric regarded her, or any human in general, for that matter.

He could kill her with one hand, and it wouldn't make one difference to him.

When she finally did drift off to sleep that night, it was a dreamless and fretful rest. She tossed and turned, completely unaware of Eric Northman, a motionless predator, standing in the corner of the room for most of the night until dawn threatened him back to his crypt.


	6. A Knight So Black

Disclaimer is currently being sucked dry. Will crawl back from the grave later.

Oh my oh my I am _loving_ the new season of True Blood. I love the amount of screen time Eric and Pam have both been getting (Chow still kind of annoys me – I'm with Bill on that one). And the chemistry between Bill and Sookie…well, let's just say I'll be incorporating as much of them as I can from here on out!

Enough gushing (for now!). Here is the next chapter, with explanations as to Eric's presence and more Bill/Sookie, as requested : ) I also posted another link in my profile, this one to the song that Penny sings at Fangtasia and in this chapter. Check it out when you get a chance! Enjoy & don't forget to review!

Nocturne

There was a constant frown on her face as she slept, he noted.

She didn't look to be in the throes of a nightmare, though something in her dreamland was certainly bothering her. Eric found himself wanting to know what it was, wanting to know what made her tic and what made her frown like that. As much as it marred her porcelain skin (flushed red slightly in places, as it was a very muggy night), he wondered if that was the face she made when—

He shook himself to be rid of the thought. He was having to do that more and more of late.

Part of her dark hair stuck to her forehead, only half her face visible as she was lying on her side, curled in her nightgown on top of the covers. He could see the outline of her body through the thin shift, and it made him arch an eyebrow of interest. He was secretly thankful they had chosen Bill's house instead of Sookie's to rest for the night – though, judging by the soft moans and hushed whispers coming from down the hall, neither Bill nor Sookie were doing much resting at the moment. They had had the decency to wait until Penny had fallen asleep, until Eric had scaled the side of Bill's house and gone through the open window in the bedroom Penny currently occupied.

Moving from the corner of the room, he slowly bent down and eased himself onto the opposite edge of the bed from where Penny lay. She didn't stir at all, and Eric was sure not to make even the smallest creak that Bill's ears could pick up on.

Watching her sleep, he thought back to the club, and her singing. It would have been easier to deal with her if she'd been much older, or much younger – though he doubted she would have enticed him just as much. Her voice alone had made him stop in his tracks the first time he'd heard her singing on the radio. Savannah James, that was the name the song had been recorded under.

_A stage name_, Eric reasoned. He knew enough from the background check he'd run on her that Savannah had been her mother's name, though he wasn't quite sure where the girl had come up with the surname James. Yet another question that would go unanswered until she remembered who she was.

Which had to be soon, otherwise the news garnered from his contacts in North Carolina – if any – would do them no good without the context of Penny's memories.

And then there was the issue of her voice. Putting aside the fact that simply listening to her sing earlier at Fangtasia had made him want to do things to her that would mostly likely scare her half – if not all the way – to death, he entertained the possibility of her being a siren. He himself had lived for over a thousand years and had never crossed paths with one, almost didn't believe that they existed. But his maker had told him stories. Lore from the isles about those who dwell on the rocks, nearly wiped out after the Trojan War. Women that could be both unearthly beautiful or ghastly grotesque – it wouldn't make a difference – that could entice even the eldest of the old ones into submission.

Well, whoever Penelope Hale was, she certainly hadn't learned how to do that. At least not yet, but the talent was there. Raw but harnessed, just waiting to be released. Glamouring her would be out of the question; with her kind of talent, she most likely had a glamour all her own, just as Sookie had one to guard against any vampire trying to glamour her.

"Sam…"

It was a half whisper, strained, said into the pillow. Eric's eyes narrowed as he studied Penny closer, hearing her heartbeat speed up in her chest as one hand clutched the bed covering at her side.

"Samson!"

She shot awake, gasping, and he almost didn't have time enough to take cover in the shadows cast by moonlight in the far corner of the room. He watched as she slowly sat up, clutching her chest and taking shaky breaths.

_Someone from your past?_ Eric wondered, remembering the name for later when he would speak with his contacts again. _Perhaps a lover._

She ran a shaking hand through her hair, swiping it from her forehead and out of her face distractedly as she pulled herself into a sitting position on the bed, her nightshift sliding up her legs to mid-thigh as she did so. He waited in the shadows, watching as her breathing slowly became normal again, though her heartbeat remained staccato as she lay back down on the bed, letting her eyes drift closed.

Eric stepped from the shadows, and walked to the side of the bed. He had done this before, it was nothing new. He'd had pets before; he'd had lovers – and the difference between them very clear to him. With pets, he took what he wanted without asking. With lovers, there was some sort of choice involved. But Eric never truly did have to ask for anything, or wait. He was Eric Northman, who would say no to him?

She would, he knew. If he asked, if he tried to glamour her. She would resist him, the complementary reaction of how he had been unable to resist finding who she was after he'd heard her voice on the radio.

Simply put, he was fucked.

Not literally of course, because that would have been more preferable to what he was doing now: waiting, watching.

Wishing.

X X X X

"What's it taste like?"

Bill looked up from staring down the bottle of TruBlood in his hands, and saw Penny watching him intently over her plate of untouched burger and fries. Sookie turned her attention to Bill as well, an inquisitive look on her face. They were in Merlotte's catching a late dinner, the sun having gone down about half an hour ago. The place was mostly full, with a middle of the week dinner rush.

"TruBlood, you mean?" Bill said, and Penny nodded. He thought about it for a moment, then said, "It's like your hamburger, but only eating the bread and not the patty. It sustains me, but does not fully…satisfy."

Penny seemed to consider his answer, then nodded her head. "A sundae without the fudge?" She tried.

Bill nodded, then looked to see Sookie's reaction to his answer. She seemed saddened, though he wanted to assure her she had no reason to be. She was still healing from being attacked by Rene. Though it had been nearly impossible not to feed on her the night before, he'd restrained himself, and indulged in her body completely instead. As far as distractions went, it was addicting.

He squeezed her hand under the table, offering her a small smile as a silent apology. Sookie squeezed back, smiling as well.

The short silence was broken by Penny's soft laughter. She shook her head, "Way to make a girl feel like a third wheel," she teased. "You two have your own language."

Sookie laughed, a little nervously, and then her expression turned curious. "Speaking of languages, how did you know what Eric was saying to Pam the other night at Fangtasia? As far as I know, no one in our family's been outside of the country."

"I've been wondering that myself…" Bill added.

But Penny could only shrug. She held out her hands, empty. "I can't explain it. I wish I could, but I just…"

Sookie was sad to see her cousin suddenly worried again, but it was Bill who spoke first.

"When I was a young man," he began, "I once took a sewing class in order to impress a girl I liked. Perhaps that is how you know the strange language. Perhaps you were trying to impress a boy you liked, a foreign exchange student who had come to study at university with you."

It was an entertaining story and, judging by the sly look on Sookie's face, Bill thought that maybe it did fit the personality of Penny, something she would do were she not an amnesiac.

Bill sighed, shaking his head. "Unless you think you've been to Sweden in the past several months…" he backtracked.

The story and complementary joke worked, and Penny was smiling again. Bill was relieved to see it after seeing her mope around the house for so long, then suddenly surprised to feel Sookie's foot inch up the side of his calf, past his knee, and then…

He coughed, to keep from biting down on his lip at the reaction his lower body had to the movement. Sookie's smile was pure evil when he saw her.

With a sideways glace to her cousin, Sookie said, "We'll be back in a minute, honey. Tell Sam to take the bill out of my check, all right?"

Equal parts flustered and amused, Penny only nodded as she fought back a smile and watched Bill and Sookie inch out of the booth and disappear into the back rooms of Merlotte's. Bill ignored the curious stares of the customers and waitresses as Sookie led him down a narrow hall and to one of the back rooms. He cringed when he saw a young woman – whom he recognized as Tara – give them both a quick wink as she picked up an order at the counter. When they reached the room, Sookie nearly shoved him inside, quickly closing the door shut behind her.

"Sookie, I really don't think we should leave your cousin out there—" Bill tried, but was stopped when Sookie rushed forward, sliding her arms up around his neck and pulling him down into a rushed kiss.

He responded without thinking, doing his best not to crush her body against his as he returned the kiss with a fever he felt to his core. All thoughts of composure and proper manners fled from his mind as he felt her roll her hips against his, only the thin fabric of her dress and his pants separating her from him. He wanted to feel every inch of her, right now, damn the people in the restaurant to hell if they heard them.

She was like a drug to him, and he was the addict.

When she pulled back, he tried to lean forward to kiss her again. She pressed a finger to his lips, smiling, "Sam's there. Everyone's there. Penny'll be fine." Had they been talking about Penny?

Right, she was still in the restaurant. He'd forgotten.

"You were great, you were so great to her out there. Thank you, Bill Compton. Thank you." Sookie laughed, kissing him again.

Bill smiled, pleased that he could make Sookie laugh to so breathlessly. His arms snaked around her sides to her thighs, nails dragging along her soft skin as he did so. He hoisted her up effortlessly so she was pressing against him in just the right spot, her dress coming up to cinch around her waist. It only pushed him further over the edge he so carefully tried to balance when he heard her moan against his lips. Did she have any idea what that sound was doing to him?

She moaned again, and he thought he'd go crazy.

Obviously, she didn't know.

He would just have to show her how crazy it made him.

Held firmly in his arms, Sookie pulled back and kissed his jaw, his neck, the part of his collarbone exposed from his button up shirt. Her hands trailed down his chest, stomach and to his pants. She reached down to undo his belt buckle and hastily pull down his pants, another moan escaping her. Or was it he who had made the noise? He couldn't tell, his senses shoved into overdrive by what the mere contact of her body against his was doing to him.

Yes, she was definitely a drug. His drug.

He pushed her up against a wall, perhaps a little too roughly because she let out a soft grunt; the animal inside of him took sick delight in that. He used one hand to pull down her underwear, the other still pressed hard against her back and began smooth rhythm that had both of them panting within seconds. He found her mouth again, eyes closed, and kissed her hard, their rhythmic motion becoming more and more intense as the seconds turned into minutes. He moved from her mouth to her neck, licking the sensitive skin there, barely knicking the skin with his fangs. When had those come out? He wasn't sure, but he _was_ sure she didn't mind by the look of pleasure on her face as he leaned back down and pressed his mouth against her neck.

He felt her hand cup his neck, pressing him harder into the skin there, and he bit down – not too roughly – a moan simultaneously escaping her lips right by his ear. The blood flowed more freely than he would of thought, but he didn't waste a drop as he continued to lick and suck at the precious liquid, tinged with the scent of salt, iron and something that he had come to learn was uniquely Sookie. Something like lavender, but more intense, more…seductive. Completely seductive, that was Sookie to him in two words.

"I can't breathe when you do that…" she panted in his ear, drawing him briefly from his frazzled thoughts. "But don't – don't stop…"

He pulled back from her neck, capturing her gaze as he felt her warm blood drip from his mouth and down his chin. She bit her lip, eyes flickering to the blood for a moment before kissing it away from his lips and jaw in another pattern of heated kisses. She had no idea how much that turned him on, but he would try and remember to tell her later.

"I love you—" she whispered tightly against his mouth, just as he felt himself nearly explode against her in a wonderful haze of blinding ecstasy.

X X X X

Outside Merlotte's, the air was cool but humid. Penny felt the atmosphere press gently down on her as she walked down the dirt path, her bare arms pale in the diluted moonlight. She had been borrowing Sookie's clothes since she'd – ah, arrived – and was wearing a pale yellow tank and jean shorts. She was nearly her cousin's size, if only a little less full in the chest.

Walking away from the parked cars and lights of the restaurant, Penny knew she needed a quiet place to think, to sort through the bits of the nightmare she'd had the night before.

A man with dark curly hair and pale skin – the image had been burned into her skull as if she'd been branded. She remembered feeling cornered, panicked and utterly helpless – all feelings she had been trying to avoid since ending up in Bon Temps. Fear wouldn't do her any good in her current situation; it was useless.

Steeling herself, Penny recalled the man's face again – youthful but intimidating, with dark green eyes and a long, sharp nose. He might have been handsome, if his face hadn't been twisted by anger in the dream scene. She remembered feeling catapulted against a wall, or a car – something hard and metal. It had hurt, and she had gasped as she'd awoken from the nightmare. Had she been running before she'd woken up? She couldn't remember clearly enough, but she'd been out of breath when awake. Out of breath, her heart pounding against her ribcage.

Something about the look in the man's eyes haunted her – a twisting darkness, endless and all consuming.

Her shoulders were racked with a shiver just then, and she shook herself, forcing the fear she felt to dissipate from her body as she continued down the dusty road. She thought back to the photo albums Sookie had shown her, how Sookie had said Penny's mother had loved to sing – maybe that's where she got it from? Penny was comforted, in the blank horror of amnesia, to think that some part of her mother still remained with her, even if she couldn't remember the woman.

As if prompted by some invisible force, Penny began to sing a few of the bars of the song the vampire Pam had given her at the club Fangtasia (a name, which, Penny thought to be utterly ridiculous and tongue-in-cheek – probably its purpose).

"_Ready, aim and pull the trigger!_" She sang softly to herself, stepping closer to the edge of the forest and out of the way of a car traveling down the road in the direction of Merlotte's.

She loved the lyrics of the song, and even if she had her memories, she knew she wouldn't be able to vocalize why. It was something innate, something in her gut – the words didn't rhyme perfectly, but they were enchanting to her. They were romantic, lilting and simple. Simple but powerful, Penny knew, if the reaction of her small audience had been any indication of their strength.

They were lyrics written by someone who deeply believed in love, but was also mistrustful. A paradox, a mystery – beautifully wrapped up in a slow, gentle melody that hypnotized Penny every time it played through her mind, which was quite often nowadays.

She sang her favorite line, a little louder than the rest of the song, "_You must be from some schemin' star…_"

"If I am from anywhere, I assure you it is not the heavens."

Penny spun at the sound of the low voice, and turned to see Eric Northman, dressed in black, standing before her.


End file.
